Birmingham Burglar Drops Through Jewelry Store Ceiling While Trying To Escape From Police
A robber in Sparkbrook didn’t quite make the dashing escape he was planning. While he likely believed his rooftop getaway plan was foolproof, the ceiling tiles weren’t. His burglary quickly failed when he crashed through the ceiling, right into the arms of waiting police.
The incident occurred in the middle of the night on Wednesday. Police were responding to a report of a break-in, and got the call around 2:30 a.m. When they arrived, the burglar was nowhere to be seen, leading them to search the location. Not long after they began their search, the suspect decided to make his appearance.
He fell through the ceiling, breaking a ceiling tile as he crashed to the ground. Police apprehended him before he had a chance to dust himself free of debris, and cleared his pockets of the stolen jewelry. After snapping a photo and putting him into custody, police determined his grand plan — and where it went wrong.
By climbing up onto the roof and sneaking into the ceiling, he was able to gain access to the building safely enough. However, his exit wasn’t nearly as stealthy. The metal framing and ceiling tiles were too weak to hold his weight, which caused it to give way underneath him.
C Team – Burglary suspect arrested following a Jewellers break in Sparkbrook. After they dropped through a ceiling…we dropped them off in custody. Detained on foot, with pockets full of swag. #stopandsearchworks #droppedtheball #NightShift pic.twitter.com/VkSpDnrEZa
— Force Response (@ResponseWMP) August 8, 2018
“The offender had scaled the roof and gained access through the ceiling,” a police spokesperson said according to the Guardian. “Officers arrived a few minutes later and arrested a man near the scene and recovered a quantity of jewelry.”
Birmingham put out a far more humorous statement on Twitter, saying that the suspect was “detained on foot, with pockets full of swag.”
The 46-year-old burglar is currently in police custody, and will likely face criminal charges for attempted robbery.
According to TMZ, this isn’t the first time a burglar has “fallen from grace,” so to speak. Earlier this year, a Canadian couple tried to rob a convenience store. While trying to escape from a mounted officer, the woman tried to climb into a ceiling vent to escape. It failed to hold her weight, and she crashed to the ground in front of police.
The two were promptly arrested, but the video of her botched escape quickly went viral. We don’t have footage of this Birmingham burglar, but the photo is comedic gold on its own. While escaping into the vents to escape police sounds pretty cool in theory, a long history of robbers falling through ceilings makes the idea less Mission Impossible and more The Breakfast Club.
